About John Newton
John Newton was born in London in 1725. After a rebellious youth and years as a slave trader, he experienced a dramatic conversion during a violent storm at sea. This "great deliverance" led him to eventually leave the slave trade and pursue ministry.
Ordained in the Church of England in 1764, Newton became one of the most influential evangelical ministers of his era. He wrote the beloved hymn "Amazing Grace" based on his own experience of redemption, and later became a powerful voice in the movement to abolish the slave trade.
"Amazing grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see."
— John Newton, 1779
Autobiographical Letters
From the Service of Sin to Liberty (1892)
Newton's autobiography, written in the form of fourteen letters to a friend, chronicles his remarkable journey and provides a powerful testimony of divine providence and redemption. These letters cover his life from 1725 to 1757.
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Letters IV - XIV